Greenberg (1963): Some Universals of Grammar #
Greenberg's basic order typology classifies a language by its dominant order of nominal subject,
object and verb, by its prepositions or postpositions, and by the order of noun and adjective. Of
the six orders of subject, object and verb only the three in which the subject precedes the object
are common (Universal 1), and they are the paper's types I, II and III, verb-initial, verb-medial
and verb-final. This file states the implicational universals of order over the paper's own data:
the 30-language sample of Appendix I, extended by the per-language properties the text and its
footnotes record, and the 24 order types of Appendix II with the languages listed as attesting each
(Data.WordOrder.Greenberg1963). Each basic type is an arrangement of subject, object and verb,
and each adposition and each order of a noun and its dependent a head direction, so the harmony
universals are statements about HeadDirection: a verb-peripheral language's adposition is a head
in the verb's direction (Universals 3 and 4), and the noun's direction towards its genitive is the
adposition's (Universal 2).
Main statements #
subjectFirst_iff_mem_range: the three basic types are exactly the subject-first orders, the typology Universal 1 leaves.universal_3_4: in the sample a verb-initial language is prepositional and a verb-final one postpositional, its adposition a head in the verb's direction.universal_2: the noun precedes or follows its genitive as the adposition precedes or follows its noun phrase, but in Norwegian, which has both genitive orders.not_universal_23_as_printed,universal_23: the data contradict Universal 23 as printed and bear it out with its genitive orders exchanged.
Implementation notes #
- A universal is a statement that every language of the sample with one property has another
(
Universal), and "almost always" and "with overwhelmingly more than chance frequency" are universals with the exceptions the paper names (UniversalExcept). Universals over the attested order types areTypeUniversal. - The genitive column follows the text, every postpositional language preposing the genitive and every prepositional one postposing it but Norwegian, which the paper's additional note records with both orders. The demonstrative and numeral columns follow Appendix I, whose counts the printed Table 6 garbles (its NA column sums to 23 against the 19 of Table 5).
- Zapotec and Songhai, whose question particles follow more than one rule, carry none, as in Table 2.
- Universal 23 as printed pairs proper-noun-first apposition with a postposed genitive, as do the genitive rows of Table 9. The languages footnote 19 lists, with their genitive orders, Table 9's rows by basic type, and the text's assimilation of apposition to the genitive pair it with a preposed genitive, so the printed universal has the two genitive orders exchanged.
TODO #
Universals 6 to 8, 11, 13 to 15, 19, 20, 25, and 26 and the morphological universals 28 to 45 concern properties the appendices and footnotes do not record per language.
References #
The basic order typology #
The arrangement of subject, object and verb of a basic order type. The paper's types I, II and III, named by the position of the verb, are verb-subject-object, subject-verb-object and subject-object-verb.
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The arrangements of subject, object and verb in which the subject precedes the object, the three Universal 1 leaves, are exactly those of the types I, II and III.
The basic order of a language of the sample.
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The basic order of an order type.
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An adposition is a head-initial preposition or a head-final postposition.
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The direction of a noun towards a dependent, when the language has one order of the two.
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Universals over the sample #
A Greenbergian implicational universal over the sample, by which every language with P has
Q.
Equations
- Greenberg1963.Universal P Q = ∀ r ∈ Data.WordOrder.Greenberg1963.sample, P r → Q r
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A universal holding but for the named languages, the paper's "almost always".
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- Greenberg1963.UniversalExcept P Q exceptions = ∀ r ∈ Data.WordOrder.Greenberg1963.sample, P r → Q r ∨ r.language ∈ exceptions
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The noun precedes its genitive in a prepositional language and follows it in a postpositional one, a head in the adposition's direction, in 29 of the 30 languages (Universal 2). Norwegian, the exception of the text, has both orders by the paper's additional note.
A verb-initial language of the sample is prepositional and a verb-final one postpositional, its adposition a head in the direction of the verb (Universals 3 and 4).
A question particle placed at the start of the sentence occurs in a prepositional language, and one placed at its end in a postpositional language, Thai and Yoruba excepted (Universal 9, Table 2).
A question particle placed by reference to a word follows it, Yoruba excepted, and no verb-initial language has one (Universal 10).
Verb-initial languages put the interrogative word first, and verb-final ones never do (Universal 12, Table 3).
An inflected auxiliary precedes the main verb in a verb-initial language and follows it in a verb-final one (Universal 16, Table 4).
The verb-initial languages of the sample have the adjective after the noun (Universal 17, Table 5).
When the adjective precedes the noun, so do the demonstrative and the numeral (Universal 18, Table 6).
Where some or all adverbs follow the adjective, the adjective follows the noun and the verb precedes its object (Universal 21, Table 7).
Standard-marker-adjective, alone or as an alternative, goes with postpositions, and adjective-marker-standard alone with prepositions, Songhai excepted (Universal 22, Table 8).
Universal 23 as printed fails on the data, since every language that puts the proper noun first puts the genitive before the noun, Norwegian having both orders.
Universal 23 with the genitive orders exchanged, as footnote 19 and the text's assimilation of apposition to the genitive have it: the proper noun first goes with a preposed genitive, but in Norwegian, which has both, and the common noun first with a postposed one, Guarani excepted.
A relative expression preceding the noun, alone or as an alternative, goes with postpositions or a preposed adjective (Universal 24, Table 10).
An exclusively suffixing language is postpositional, and an exclusively prefixing one prepositional (Universal 27, Table 11).
Universals over the attested order types of Appendix II #
The order types the paper lists a language for.
Equations
- Greenberg1963.attested = List.filter (fun (x : Data.WordOrder.OrderType) => decide (x.attested ≠ [])) Data.WordOrder.Greenberg1963.types
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A universal over the attested types.
Equations
- Greenberg1963.TypeUniversal P Q = ∀ t ∈ Greenberg1963.attested, P t → Q t
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The prepositional types with a preposed genitive are the paper's 3, 11, 12, and 19, and the postpositional types with a postposed genitive its 14 and 21, the exceptions to Universal 2.
No postpositional verb-initial type is attested (Universal 3). The paper's additional note records Papago as the one exception it learned of.
The prepositional verb-final types, the exceptions to Universal 4, are 17, Persian's, and 19, Amharic's.
A verb-final type with a postposed genitive has the adjective after the noun, the types 18 and 22 being empty (Universal 5).
The verb-initial types with the adjective before the noun, the exceptions to Universal 17, are 2 and 3.